Jon and Brian - Time to Shine Boys

[Sir Geoff]

1 hour ago, robinforlife2 said:

 

My anti Pearson agenda stretching back years ???? The first I wasn't happy with him in charge was Xmas 2022 and we were playing awful. After the Boxing Day defeat to West Brom, I do think he should have been sacked. That's not an anti Pearson agenda stretching back years ...... He got 11 months longer in a job he was failing at. Yes he did turn it around somewhat, and I wasn't calling for his head when he was sacked. If you read some posts in the weeks prior to his dismissal, I actually said, I didn't think we should be renewing his deal, but see where we were end of the season, but at most a one year extension as he hadn't warranted a longer deal in what we had achieved. That's not a anti Pearson agenda! He never won me over, I don't think we achieved much, and I wasn't upset when he went. I own opinion is, we would have never achieved success under him. 

I genuinely think had he not gone to the media, the club would have let him see out his contract this year, but wouldn't have renewed it. 

Also, what makes Jon's comments about us should be doing better "completely unqualified" as you put it. 

After the World cup break we beat Rotherham away 3-1 and threw away the home game to Stoke, Then the boxing day game v WBA. prior to the WC we held Watford 0-0 with Andy King at CH. Hardly playing awful.

[Mr Popodopolous]

11 minutes ago, Sir Geoff said:

After the World cup break we beat Rotherham away 3-1 and threw away the home game to Stoke, Then the boxing day game v WBA. prior to the WC we held Watford 0-0 with Andy King at CH. Hardly playing awful.

Denied 2 clear penalties in that Watford game too, one in particular the boot to the head- was it Wells.

King wad good in that position v Watford and Rotherham, cost us v Stoke and West Brom but Stoke especially..

Edited January 14 by Mr Popodopolous

[Merrick's Marvels]

6 hours ago, bearded_red said:

The change in manager was supposedly to get more out of the squad we had.

An excellent point and one that deserves frequent repetition.

Unless, like you say, it was just more bullsh1t. Surely not.

[BUTOR]

Just looked at our next 4 fixtures. Watford, Leeds, Boro and Southampton. It’s not impossible, in fact probably quite likely, that our season could be over by March AGAIN. 

I am reminded that the worst form of football is this. Nothing to play for, languishing deadness. And we’ve had it from Spring onwards for as long as we’ve been in the Championship, barring one or two limp play off pushes under LJ and one sort of relegation battle. It’s unbearably boring. I don’t care how this sounds, give me a fiery survival battle over stuck in the mud nothingness every single time. I’m done with this non-movement. We’re the most 14th position team in Europe. Probably the world. If we can’t string a serious run of wins together then let’s sell our best players this month for cheap in order to go on a big losing run and have a bit of danger to contend with come April. I want to feel something, that’s the ******* point of all this 

[frenchred]

2 hours ago, Mattredrobin said:

 we've dominated some games ok not all, and we also won 3 games on the trot which i cant remember the last time we did that, I think there are signs that what he's doing is working to a certain aspect. Ok the last 3 games haven't been great, but we are an inconsistent mid table team that's all we are, with the correct recruitment I believe manning can push us on. 

But we were told, and you cannot escape the fact, that we have a top 6 squad that the previous manager should have done better with. Manning was brought in to realise this belief not to start all over again! At this present time he looks way out of his depth

[Numero Uno]

10 minutes ago, frenchred said:

But we were told, and you cannot escape the fact, that we have a top 6 squad that the previous manager should have done better with. Manning was brought in to realise this belief not to start all over again! At this present time he looks way out of his depth

Under the old regime we achieved 21 points from 15 games (18 from 14 for Nige). Manning has had 12 games and got 15 points so needs 6 from his next three or 3 from his next 2 if you compare directly with Nige only to achieve the par that wasn’t good enough for the two muscateers.

The interesting thing is how do those two square that off with the comments they made? According to some we have a better coached team by a progressive manager not a dinosaur. How do we explain the lack of progress in terms of points if that’s the case?

The dinosaur and the progressive have achieved the same to all intents and purposes and the latter has less injury issues. Perhaps an admission by the hierarchy that they over estimated the squad quality is in order?

[Bris Red]

1 hour ago, BUTOR said:

Just looked at our next 4 fixtures. Watford, Leeds, Boro and Southampton. It’s not impossible, in fact probably quite likely, that our season could be over by March AGAIN. 

I am reminded that the worst form of football is this. Nothing to play for, languishing deadness. And we’ve had it from Spring onwards for as long as we’ve been in the Championship, barring one or two limp play off pushes under LJ and one sort of relegation battle. It’s unbearably boring. I don’t care how this sounds, give me a fiery survival battle over stuck in the mud nothingness every single time. I’m done with this non-movement. We’re the most 14th position team in Europe. Probably the world. If we can’t string a serious run of wins together then let’s sell our best players this month for cheap in order to go on a big losing run and have a bit of danger to contend with come April. I want to feel something, that’s the ******* point of all this 

Be careful what you wish for as i really don't fancy us in a relegation battle, certainly not with this squad anyway. Too many weak minded bottlers amongst them IMO.

As much as i agree with what you are saying about things being painfully boring over the last 6 or 7 seasons, going back to League 1 would be a disaster for the club. No guarantee we would bounce back in 2 season like we did last time aswell. I don't know about you but i have seen far too many seasons of us being in the third tier - it's ******* dire.

[Davefevs]

5 minutes ago, Bris Red said:

Too many weak minded bottlers amongst them IMO.

I don’t see that myself.

[Mattredrobin]

30 minutes ago, frenchred said:

But we were told, and you cannot escape the fact, that we have a top 6 squad that the previous manager should have done better with. Manning was brought in to realise this belief not to start all over again! At this present time he looks way out of his depth

Well sadly the board are chatting shite. 

[Jose]

5 minutes ago, Bris Red said:

Be careful what you wish for as i really don't fancy us in a relegation battle, certainly not with this squad anyway. Too many weak minded bottlers amongst them IMO.

As much as i agree with what you are saying about things being painfully boring over the last 6 or 7 seasons, going back to League 1 would be a disaster for the club. No guarantee we would bounce back in 2 season like we did last time aswell. I don't know about you but i have seen far too many seasons of us being in the third tier - it's ******* dire.

Weak minded bottlers is extremely harsh. Effort is one thing that isn’t missing from this team. We just lack any sort of quality or direction. 
 

Not good enough, perhaps. Bottlers they are not. 

[Major Isewater]

21 hours ago, Davefevs said:

All about the price!

[Davefevs]

1 minute ago, Major Isewater said:

I know who she is, but it’s wasted on me Major.  Had it been Jessie J I’d have got it!

[slartibartfast]

17 minutes ago, Bris Red said:

Be careful what you wish for as i really don't fancy us in a relegation battle, certainly not with this squad anyway. Too many weak minded bottlers amongst them IMO.

As much as i agree with what you are saying about things being painfully boring over the last 6 or 7 seasons, going back to League 1 would be a disaster for the club. No guarantee we would bounce back in 2 season like we did last time aswell. I don't know about you but i have seen far too many seasons of us being in the third tier - it's ******* dire.

We will NOT be going down !

[Gert Mare]

It doesn’t matter who the manager is we need all 11 on the pitch to be at the top of their game otherwise we struggle.

Yesterday was a prime example of carrying a few players, Mehmeti was frustrating, Bell was anonymous, Vyner was half asleep and Tanner was back to getting a nose bleed as soon as he stepped over the halfway line.

Knight is consistent and Joe Williams has got stronger, but there they had to do the work of 4 in the middle of the park so Conway got no service. He was totally isolated upfront and didn’t even have scraps to feed off of.  A number of times he was begging players to give him something, but all that was happening was the safe 2 yard passes and anything else went astray. 

We don’t have enough quality and it’s as simple as that. Even our bench options offer the same thing that is already on the pitch and we need more physical presence and creativity otherwise 1 up top just isn’t going to work.

 

[Loosey Boy]

51 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I don’t see that myself.

Me neither - be interested to know who @Bris Red thinks falls into this category? 

[W-S-M Seagull]

5 hours ago, robinforlife2 said:

 

My anti Pearson agenda stretching back years ???? The first I wasn't happy with him in charge was Xmas 2022 and we were playing awful. After the Boxing Day defeat to West Brom, I do think he should have been sacked. That's not an anti Pearson agenda stretching back years ...... He got 11 months longer in a job he was failing at. Yes he did turn it around somewhat, and I wasn't calling for his head when he was sacked. If you read some posts in the weeks prior to his dismissal, I actually said, I didn't think we should be renewing his deal, but see where we were end of the season, but at most a one year extension as he hadn't warranted a longer deal in what we had achieved. That's not a anti Pearson agenda! He never won me over, I don't think we achieved much, and I wasn't upset when he went. I own opinion is, we would have never achieved success under him. 

I genuinely think had he not gone to the media, the club would have let him see out his contract this year, but wouldn't have renewed it. 

Also, what makes Jon's comments about us should be doing better "completely unqualified" as you put it. 

The fact you suggest we was playing awful and that you thought he should be sacked after 2 defeats really does show your agenda tbh. 

[The Coach]

3 hours ago, Davefevs said:

I don’t see that myself.

In fact quite the opposite for me. We are built more on engine and guts…or were due to the hard work of Pearson and team.

Unfortunately that only gets you so far. You do need real talent and intelligence in order to get to the PL. But with that, you also need to be prepared to invest.

Edited January 14 by The Coach

[JP Hampton]

15 hours ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

My hypothesis is that Manning does a decent job on analysing teams with all the data etc. I think LJ did too. Spends all week coaching them about how these teams will play. 

But then when those teams change and then Manning, like LJ, doesn't have that instinct to recognise what we need to change to counter their changes.

It seems he needs to wait for the data to come through about the changes the other team has made before we implement our own changes. By that time it's already too late. 

Unfortunately this I feel is where his lack of experience and Championship knowledge comes into it. Basically he's winging it and learning on the job. I'm not saying Pearson was perfect, but him and his team did have that experience and knowledge of the Championship. For example, and I'm hypothesising again, he may know that Lowe would make 3 changes and go more direct. 

I think Manning is a decent coach. But as a manager, I'm not convinced. He doesn't seem to be able to motivate players either at half time or from the sidelines. 

 

Yeah totally agree with your hypothesis. Just taking yesterday’s game alone what did he really think was going to happen, bringing Cornick McCrorie and King on that late into the game. 
 Even Haaland would have struggled to effect any change at that point. It just felt like a complete waste of time. An action by someone who to me, seemed out of his depth. 
 

  I’d genuinely love to know what his thinking was there?

[W-S-M Seagull]

3 minutes ago, JP Hampton said:

Yeah totally agree with your hypothesis. Just taking yesterday’s game alone what did he really think was going to happen, bringing Cornick McCrorie and King on that late into the game. 
 Even Haaland would have struggled to effect any change at that point. It just felt like a complete waste of time. An action by someone who to me, seemed out of his depth. 
 

  I’d genuinely love to know what his thinking was there?

I think along the lines of he expected us to keep playing the same way and Preston to do the same after half time and got totally caught off guard with their changes. He was then slow to react and when he did react it was too late and they were ineffective subs like you say. 

[Bobbie]

On 13/01/2024 at 20:08, spudski said:

Couldn't give a shit what you or anyone else thinks. 

How the **** have I been spoilt.

Carry on with your mud pies

 

Just listening to a Reading fan on 5 live and yes, it really drums home just how SPOILT and pathetic much of our fan base sound. 

[spudski]

4 minutes ago, Bobbie said:

Just listening to a Reading fan on 5 live and yes, it really drums home just how SPOILT and pathetic much of our fan base sound. 

Easy to throw around words like spoilt and pathetic without meaning. 

That's the type of thing trolls do. 

How about you actually put some meat on those bones and explain how us City fans have been 'Spoilt' and anyone who questions the leadership is pathetic? 

 

[luke_bristol]

9 minutes ago, Bobbie said:

Just listening to a Reading fan on 5 live and yes, it really drums home just how SPOILT and pathetic much of our fan base sound. 

What other English club that has never played in the PL or won a major honour (or even got to a major final for over 100 years) gets 22k at home every other week?

Maybe the owners have been spoilt!

[Mike Hunt-Hertz]

15 minutes ago, Bobbie said:

Just listening to a Reading fan on 5 live and yes, it really drums home just how SPOILT and pathetic much of our fan base sound. 

You know that the Lansdowns don't give away tickets for free?